On the resignation of 3 from FINA’s Doping Control Review Board

On the topic of the resignation of the FINA Doping Control Review Board membersby John Leonard, American Swimming Coaches Association

Dr. Julio Maglione assures the world that FINA is “at the forefront of anti-doping”. I believe the resignation of the three most important members of the FINA Doping Control Review Board demonstrates conclusively that FINA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are running an elaborate public relations scheme designed to fool the world into thinking they actually care about anti-doping, when all they care about in reality is the flow of cash into their organizations, earned on the back of athletes predominately clean but some “dirty with doping” receiving a pittance for their labor.

The athletes need to rebel and refuse to participate until the doping mess is cleaned up with a renewed World Anti-Doping Agency in charge, led by someone like Travis Tygart with an impeccable reputation and history and no conflict of interest with the IOC or anyone else.
We have been told for decades now that “boycott” is a “dirty word” and especially told that “boycotts only hurt athletes”. Absolute nonsense. The boycotts of 1980 and 1984 were government-led and intended to produce political ends; they failed miserably and the athletes were indeed the only ones to suffer because concerns of the athletes played no part in the government mandated boycotts. The reality is boycott is the only way that major change in sport and Swimming can happen, as has been true throughout history in every walk of life.

Clean athletes are being destroyed now by the scourge of doping. If they refuse to participate, the television money that comes to the IOC and FINA (World Championships) will immediately cease, and the IOC and FINA “circus” will stop. And both organizations will come immediately to their knees. Without the athletes on whose backs both organizations ride, the circus stops, as does the flow of cash to both organizations.

Those from FINA and the IOC who repeat their mantra that “boycotts only hurt the athletes” lie as part of their public relations campaign. A boycott by the athletes would be devastating to the owners of the circus: the IOC and FINA. They would be immediately forced to clean up the doping scene, which is possible, using modern testing methods (high throughput testing).